


Snowy Morning

by likethenight



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Christmas, Christmas at Hogwarts, Fluff, Gryffindor Common Room, M/M, Marauders' Era, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-27
Updated: 2018-12-27
Packaged: 2019-09-28 19:43:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17189195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/likethenight/pseuds/likethenight
Summary: Remus wakes early on Christmas morning, alone at Hogwarts with Sirius for the holidays.





	Snowy Morning

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this back in December 2004 as a Christmas fic for my friends in the HP fandom where I was playing around a bit at the time. Probably about time I posted it here...
> 
> Remus' and Sirius' presents to each other feature in another fic of mine, set many years later, [_White Snow, Black Heart_](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17189279).

Remus awoke early on Christmas morning. He rolled out of bed and wrapped himself in his dressing gown, pulled on his thickest, warmest pair of socks and, ignoring the small pile of presents at the foot of his bed, took himself downstairs to sit in the common room. Sirius was still asleep, of course, and the one or two other Gryffindors who had stayed for the holidays were almost certainly still in bed too.

Remus curled up on the window seat and rubbed his fingertips against the glass to clear away enough of the frost patterns to allow him to see out. It was snowing, huge white flakes whirling and dancing past the window on their way down, settling on everything they could. It must have been snowing all night, for there was already a thick blanket of white over the buildings and grounds. Remus stared out at it, losing himself in the dance of the snow and the endless whiteness.

Eventually the snow slowed and stopped, and the clouds melted away to reveal a sky so brilliantly blue that Remus had to rub his eyes, and then shade them with his hand against the dazzling sparkle of the morning sunlight on the snow. Everything was still and silent, shining white as far as the eye could see, and Remus was suddenly glad that the others were still sleeping off last night's revelries; this glorious new world was his alone. 

He smiled absently as he gazed out across the grounds. Last night had really been rather fun. The few students and teachers who were staying at Hogwarts had gathered round a table in the Great Hall, all the houses and the staff sitting together for once. The food had been even more excellent than usual, and while the younger ones had been given mulled fruit juice to drink, the sixth and seventh years had been allowed to share the mulled wine provided for the teachers; Dumbledore's eyes had twinkled as he had decreed that this was a special occasion and what were rules there for if not to be bent a little occasionally? Sirius had grinned conspiratorially at Remus, muttering something about the perks of being a sixth year, and what a good idea it had been to stay at school for Christmas this year.

Dinner had been followed by singing and dancing (even Dumbledore had hitched up his robes and joined in), and magical parlour tricks performed by all those who felt like participating. Sirius had conjured up a cloud of apple-scented smoke and made it take the shape of a huge dog, sending it bounding around the room as he looked rather meaningfully at Remus. Remus himself had blushed and declined to contribute a trick, but he couldn't help but feel a thrill of warmth inside him at being the only one in on the joke. Much as he liked James and Peter he was rather guiltily glad that they had gone home to their respective families, leaving him with Sirius all to himself.

They had finally made their way to bed very late, pleasantly tipsy from the mulled wine and leaning happily on each other all the way up the stairs before falling into their beds and sleeping like children. Remus' dreams had been unusually pleasant, filled with images of black hair and sparkling eyes and a smile that was meant just for him.

The sound of familiar footsteps on the stairs woke him from his reverie, and he turned to see Sirius standing in the doorway, hair all over the place and dressing gown rather sloppily tied over his pyjamas. Sirius' breath was clouding in front of him, and he hurried over to stoke the fire, talking all the while.

"Merlin, Moony, it's cold down here. How long have you been sat here? Didn't it occur to you to make up the fire?" Sirius lit the fire with a flick of his wand and turned around. "Moony, you're shivering." His tone was accusatory, and Remus looked down at himself. 

"Oh. So I am. I didn't notice." He paused, fully aware that Sirius would not understand his absorption in the ice-world outside the window. "I was just admiring the view."

"Well, now you can admire this view instead," Sirius grinned. "Come and sit in front of the fire and warm up a bit." He pulled Remus up and led him over to a large armchair, settling himself in it and tugging Remus' arm until he sat down too. Sirius slid his arms around Remus and held him tight. "What you need now is hot chocolate," he said. "Breakfast won't be for a while, and you need something warm right now."

Remus knew better than to argue; and anyway, his silent contemplation was shattered now. It wouldn't be the same with Sirius talking away in the background, wouldn't be Remus' own little world any more. Still, he had to admit that it was nice here, snuggled into a chair with Sirius' arms around him and the fire blazing. Soon a house-elf appeared with some hot chocolate and the message that breakfast would be extra-late this morning, and Sirius grinned. "Perfect," he said as soon as the house-elf had gone. "Time to ourselves. Present-opening time, too. _Accio_ presents!" And sure enough, barely a minute had gone by when a string of brightly-wrapped parcels danced through the door from the dormitory, coming to rest in front of their chair.

The presents were a mix of good and indifferent, as usual. Sirius' family had sent a particularly unpleasant leather wallet, tooled with the Black family emblem, and a pair of cufflinks also bearing the family crest. Sirius barely glanced at them, consigning them to the floor among the discarded wrapping paper and turning to another parcel straight away. Remus had a jumper and a couple of books from his parents, one magical text and one Muggle novel as usual; his parents liked him to keep up with both worlds. Peter had left them a Honeydukes selection box each, while James had obviously had the same idea in Zonko's, and for a while they compared trick wands and exploding scrolls while munching Every Flavour Beans and drinking their hot chocolate. Unconsciously, perhaps, they had saved each other's gifts until last, and there was a moment of almost-awkwardness between them as they picked up the parcels, wondering who should open his first.

"You go first, Moony," said Siris, sounding endearingly unsure of himself for once.

"No, you go first," Remus said, but Sirius shook his head. "Well, in that case we'll open them together," Remus sighed, pulling at the paper. The wrapping fell away to reveal a book, bound in rich burgundy leather; puzzled, Remus opened it to find all the pages blank. He looked questioningly up at Sirius, who was in the middle of discovering that his gift from Remus was a small but beautifully carved obsidian dragon. 

"It's not much," Remus whispered, suddenly ashamed of his lack of money. He was by no means badly-off, but compared to his friend he was a pauper, as demonstrated by the quality of the book he held in his hands.

"Moony, what are you talking about? It's beautiful. It really is. Thank you." Sirius smiled, that shattering, heartbreaking smile, and Remus thought he felt something snap inside him. He blushed a little and looked down again at the book in his hands.

Sirius laughed softly. "It's a journal, Moony. I only wrote on the first page."

Remus flipped the thick, cream-coloured pages (such beautiful paper, it would be a shame to write on it) back to the flyleaf, and read the inscription in Sirius' bold black script. _Moony - for you to write down all the things you think about when you think nobody's watching you. Love Padfoot._ \- and a little black ink pawprint. Remus just looked at it for a moment, and when he dared to look up at Sirius he saw that his friend was smiling an entirely different smile now; soft and subtle and heartfelt.

"I watch you, you know," he said softly. "You look as though you're miles away, lost in a world of your own; and I wonder what you're thinking. Not that I'll read what you write, of course," he added hurriedly. 

Remus smiled. "I don't think there's anything I could write that I wouldn't want you to read, Pads. You know me better than the others, you always have." He brushed his thumb across the letters, watching as Sirius' hand moved to cover his. 

"And always will do, I hope," Sirius murmured, and they were silent a moment before Sirius gave Remus' fingers a brief squeeze and shifted in the chair. "I think it's probably breakfast time, Moony. Ready to face the others?"

Remus grinned. "Once I'm dressed I will be. And you'd better get dressed too, if you don't want that second-year Hufflepuff girl fluttering her eyelashes at you all through breakfast."

Sirius grinned back. "An admirer? Well, I'd better go and make myself beautiful for her, hadn't I?"

And they scrambled out of the chair and up the stairs for the dormitory, the moment not broken at all but changed into something else, something far more full of promise than Remus could have guessed when he had sat daydreaming by the window before anyone else had awoken.


End file.
